From Barth, Dogmatics in Outline : “For Christian faith is faith in God, and when the Christian Confession names God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is pointing to the fact that in His inner life and nature God is not dead, not passive, not inactive, but that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit exist in an inner relationship and movement, which may very well be described as a story, as an event. God... Read more
From Barth, Dogmatics in Outline : “For Christian faith is faith in God, and when the Christian Confession names God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is pointing to the fact that in His inner life and nature God is not dead, not passive, not inactive, but that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit exist in an inner relationship and movement, which may very well be described as a story, as an event. God... Read more
Unfortunately, Bailey’s discussion of the links between the prodigal son story and the narratives of Jacob and Esau is vitiated (great word I learned from Calvin) by his misinterpretation of both Jacob and Rebekah. Jacob breaks faith with his father, as the prodigal did (according to Bailey), and Rebekah is not a great woman because she deceived her husband. I think both of these are exactly wrong. It seems rather that Jesus is playing off the Jacob-Esau story but reversing... Read more
Based on LXX evidence, Bailey argues that the word translated as “safe and sound” should be translated as “in peace” (the word translates SHALOM in 10 of 11 uses in the LXX, and translates SHALAM in the 11th use). The feast is a festival of reconciliation and peace, covenant renewal. In fact, there is perhaps a sacrificial sequence in the whole story: The story is about a “son” (cf. “son of the herd” in Lev 1); the son is separated... Read more
Based on LXX evidence, Bailey argues that the word translated as “safe and sound” should be translated as “in peace” (the word translates SHALOM in 10 of 11 uses in the LXX, and translates SHALAM in the 11th use). The feast is a festival of reconciliation and peace, covenant renewal. In fact, there is perhaps a sacrificial sequence in the whole story: The story is about a “son” (cf. “son of the herd” in Lev 1); the son is separated... Read more
Bailey makes a perceptive comment at one point, drawing on the experience of a Jesuit psychologist of his acquaintance. This psychologist found that he could fairly quickly get his patients to talk openly about their sexual histories and sins, but that when he began to ask them about their finances, a wall was immediately thrown up. Bailey says, “The conclusion that my friend and other therapists have come to is that an individual’s money and how he or she spends... Read more
Kenneth Bailey’s recent monograph on the prodigal son, Jacob and the Prodigal (IVP), is full of stimulating insights. A long-time Christian teacher in Arabic and Syriac-speaking countries, Bailey always brings to his interpretations a wealth of knowledge of the cultural background and attitudes of men of the Near East. Also, he has a good eye for literary structure and for narrative and symbolism. That said, a few specific insights are worth noting: 1) He points out the parallels between the... Read more
Communion meditation, January 11: If you want to have a calm meal, don’t invite Jesus. Over and over in Luke’s gospel, Jesus uses mealtime to confront the Pharisees, to challenge their unforgiving Spirit, to castigate them for neglecting the weightier matters of the law, to charge them with killing prophets. When Jesus comes to dinner, He’s likely to make a lot of people uncomfortable. Our pathologies and sin and sickness are revealed at the table, and when Jesus comes to... Read more
Exhortation for January 11: In the sermon text this morning, we see that Jesus is establishing and organizing His kingdom by changing practices at the table. This seems to be an odd way to establish a kingdom. We think of kingdoms being established through conquest, war, palace coups, or popular revolutions and uprisings. But that’s not the case. Profound revolutions in human history do not occur in palaces. Emperors and kings rise and fall; regimes organize and collapse, yet the... Read more
Green denies that the parable of the banquet in Luke 14:16ff is about the Messianic banquet. It suggests that God at one time did NOT want the poor to His banquet, but included them as a kind of afterthought; this not only is unflattering to God, but goes contrary to Luke’s theology, which sees in Jesus’ open invitation to the table a fulfillment of promises made to Abraham. He also denies that the story allegorizes God’s turn from Jews to... Read more
Leithart
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